Saturday, 31 December 2011

Des res

LMYE's New Label of the Year hardly released a thing in 2011. Not much of a basis for recognition, you may think. But however minimal its output what did come out of Desire Path was exquisite - & if there's a better record in 2012 than its next release (which almost made it out this year anyway, so gets co-opted for these purposes - along with its debut release from late last year...) these ears will be very, very surprised (& thrilled, obviously)...

A label "focused on creating distinct pathways" that seeks to enable listeners (for whom it prescribes a strictly vinyl regimen) to "escap[e] to a place they may otherwise never find", DP emphasises location & journey in its output - not in the literal sense of field recordings, but rather in the recapitulation & inspiration of memory of place. This year this led us down the path to Benoit Pioulard's blurry 'lake within a haze', Thelma, & Kyle Bobby Dunn's lovely lacustrine counterpart, Chester - as well as his inviting Canyon Meadows.

I've probably got entirely the wrong end of the environmental stick. But the next of these resonant spaces, which clearly also chime with the 'sonic topographies'Solo Andata summon on Ritual, seems to be the monumental Aude of Janek Schaefer & the genuinely legendary Charlemagne Palestine.

A first taste of this unexpected pair's extraordinary collaboration, Raga de l'apres-midi pour Aude, surfaced earlier this year in a fine DP mix for Type's Typecast series - stream & download the 'cast & hear the hallucinatory, keening Schaefer/Palestine raga below.

Can ears pray? Too metaphysical for New Year's Eve, perhaps. But these ears certainly offer up a profound hope that DP manages to build on its masterful initial quartet in the year & years ahead...